Liverpool have made Yan Diomande their top wing target, and the RB Leipzig and Cote d’Ivoire 19-year-old certainly looks as though he has the talent to make a difference at the highest levels.
Having come to football relatively late, though, with no time at a top academy and only one full season of senior football, even with a potential €100M-plus price tag fans might have to give him time to develop into the player everyone seems to think he can become if the Reds can get his signing done.
That’s
the slight note of caution being sounded by former Red and current Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, who sees a lot of talent—and echos of top Liverpool stars—in Diomande but warns he isn’t the finished product quite yet.
“I think what you’re buying is potential,” Carragher said on Sky. “It’s not what he is right now—he’s a 19-year-old kid, a young man—but when you look at him, he looks like he has all of the attributes and you think of the success that Liverpool have had in the past with powerful, quick wide men.
“You think of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, especially those two, and he certainly looks like he has those types of traits. That’s a big thing that Liverpool lacked last season, pace in wide areas. They’ve already got a signing in Victor Muñoz, and maybe they want a bit of pace on the other side as well.
“It’s pretty obvious that’s where Liverpool were lacking last season, and it looks like this is where they’re going in the market now, but will he be worth it? Only time will tell.”
While Liverpool continue to work on trying to sign him, Diomande and Cote d’Ivoire are preparing to take on Curacao in their final group stage game on Thursday knowing that a win will guarantee them a place in the knockout rounds of the 2026 Word Cup.
